The Trilogy: Breaking Free
by Lamaire Grey
Summary: Book One: Chaos looms when Troy breaks Gabby's heart, causing the christams musical to spiral out of control. Can chad and Taylor put the pieces back together and maintain their own relationship, or will Gabby's plan for revenge ruin everything? fights an


**The Trilogy: Breaking Free**

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Disclaimer: I own none of the original High school musical characters, plotlines or song lyrics used in this text. Many of the lyrics used are my own and therefore copy righted to me. If you would like to use any of them please email me and I would be happy to give you permission. ****

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Summary: _Book One:_ When troy and Gabriella break up due to an indiscretion on Troy's part and with the musicals' opening night looming, chaos is in the air. Chad and Taylor attempt to do anything to get the star-crossed lovers back together, whilst trying to maintain their blossoming relationship. However with Troy being stubborn, Gabriella getting even and Sharpay and Ryan desperate to steal the limelight from the rapidly deteriorating lead couple, what can you do? 

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The Trilogy: Breaking Free **

_**Book One**_

**Chapter One: A Night To Remember**

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We're breakin' free _

_We're soarin'_

_Flyin' _

_There's not a star in heaven _

_That we can't reach _

_If we're trying _

_Yeah, we're breaking free_

Gabriella Montez took a deep breath as she braced herself, as she approached the door to her form room. Troy would be in there that was for sure. Could she face him, was the question that kept reeling in her mind, as she focused all her energy on keeping herself together.

This weekend was meant to have been so perfect. A Saturday filled with basketball, swimming in Troy's family's pool and an evening filled with a movie and dinner. Then waking up in each others arms the next morning. Yes, after months of dating, Troy's family had finally gone away for the weekend, leaving the couple to make plans to take their relationship to the next level.

They had planned to spend Sunday learning their lines for the Christmas musical, in which, yet again, they had the lead roles.

However, like everything does in the end, things had gone terribly wrong.

She recalled the memory of when troy had confessed about the party. The party that had ruined everything. The college party troy had been invited to by bubbly, blonde Amanda Lewis, a fresher at the local college, who worked with troy, at the sports shop in town.

If it hadn't been for Amanda Lewis and her stupid party, everything would have been fine. And Gabriella would have awoken yesterday morning in the arms of the love of her life, and not to a tear soaked pillow in her own bedroom.

Taking yet another deep breath, she steeled herself and pushed open the form room door.

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"Miss Montez! You are late!" 

Troy's head snapped up as Mrs. Darbus' voice rang shrilly through the form room as the door squeaked open and Gabriella scuttled in, avoiding eye contact with everyone. He watched as she stalked across the room and seated herself, not in her usual place, next to him, but beside Taylor, her best friend.

He examined the pair closely, watching as Taylor scribbled a hasty note to her friend, and then as Gabriella hurriedly wrote a shorter one back, which once read, caused Taylor to shoot him a death glare across the room.

Troy shut his eyes and slammed his head down on the desk in front of him. How could he have been so stupid? He groaned to himself. He had just destroyed the best thing that had happened to him in years and for what? One stupid, meaningless and drunken kiss, with a girl he barely knew or even wanted to know.

He'd known for ages that Amanda was keen on him, and had accepted her invitation out of politeness. The party had been a wild one, full of alcohol and crazy obscure people, all of whom had achieved something he'd always wanted; a little bit of freedom. And perhaps that was why he'd kissed her back. To feel like someone different for a change.

The only problem was, that now, he felt like someone he didn't want to be.

"Class dismissed!" cried Mrs. Darbus and Troy jumped out of his seat, trying to catch up with Gabriella.

"Gabby!"

"Leave me alone, Troy"

Her answer was cold, and made those around the couple look up in curiosity. Could it be that the school's golden couple had broken up?

Troy's classmates looked on in amazement and astonishment as Gabriella stalked past troy and out into the corridor without a backwards glance.

And suddenly all eyes were on him. He'd been the centre of attention before, in basketball games and sports days, but never because of a negative situation.

"C'mon mate"

Troy felt himself being dragged away from the prying eyes by his best friend, Chad, and followed without defiance.

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"What the hell happened with you and gabby then!" Chad exclaimed, once the pair were out of earshot of their classmates. 

"Nothing" troy sulked, sliding down against the metal railings, until he was sat on the floor of the basketball court.

"That did not look like nothing, mate!" Chad observed dryly.

Troy shook his head in despair.

"Amanda?" Chad guessed and troy nodded dispiritedly.

"I went to her party, I drank a lot, and when she kissed me, I just went with it….." he explained.

"And Gabriella heard about it?" Chad probed.

"No, I told her. On Saturday night……"

"Saturday night? Hadn't you planned to..?"

Troy nodded again, a grim expression on his features. Chad slid down next to him.

"That's some deep shit your in mate."

"Helpful, thank you" troy replied sullenly.

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"He kissed another girl!" 

Gabriella swung her legs back and forth from the desk she was perched on in the science lab and nodded, her tears staining her cheeks.

"Not just any girl either. Amanda Lewis! How can I compare to Amanda Lewis!"

Taylor sent her friend a sympathetic look.

"You're much prettier then Amanda Lewis Gabs. Did he explain?"

"He said he'd been drinking. It was a college party after all and that it just happened." She elaborated and Taylor nodded thoughtfully.

"I mean its not that he made a mistake. I can forgive mistakes. It was just the timing of it……."

Taylor pulled her friend into a tight embrace as Gabriella's tears began to fall once again.

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"Now now Students!" 

Mrs. Darbus' voice rang out over the chattering students in the theatre, as the Christmas musical's rehearsal began.

"We need the leads on stage. I want the penultimate song rehearsed. Everyone else please carry on with scenery. We only have six weeks! Quick quick now!"

Troy dashed up on stage, after Gabriella, desperate to talk to her.

"Gabby?"

"Don't" she snapped back, coolly.

Troy's shoulders slumped as he sighed and took his place opposite his girlfriend. Well ex – girlfriend he supposed now.

"From the top please kelsi!" Mrs. Darbus yelled and the short, bespectacled musician scuttled up on stage, and seated herself at the piano.

Troy braced himself for the words that he was about to sing. They were terribly ironic for the moment he mused.

As the first chord sounded from the piano, troy caught Gabriella's gaze and held it as the piano played.

_Ive been walking for several million hours,_

_And yet I can't seem to pull off this façade,_

_I think it takes just a little bit more skill, or talent, or something like acting up,_

_But I don't want to turn around and face the life I left behind._

He took a step forward towards Gabriella, and then hesitated as she turned away from him, as her lines began.

_There's nothing you can say to me,_

_I know that it's all lies,_

_The face that you have painted on,_

_Is soon about to fade._

_And then what have you got left?_

Troy gulped as he glanced down at the next lines on his song sheet.

_And I know you're stained._

_And I know it's what I did to you,_

_I know you're pained,_

_And I know that you can see right though,_

_This façade._

_I know you're stained. _

_And I know your heart bleeds._

_But I turned around, tried to tell you to stop. _

_I guess I just didn't expect you to actually leave…_

"Mrs. Darbus? I… I don't think I can do this today. Im so sorry"

Troy watched in horror as Gabriella fled the stage, and dashed towards the theatre doors.

"Gabby! Wait!" He called, dashing after her, weaving through the rows of chairs, desperately trying to gain on the dark haired girl in front of him.

"Has everyone gone mad?" Cried the startled drama teacher, as she watched her two leads exit the theatre.

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"Whoa! Steady there" 

Gabriella found herself being caught, just before she landed on the ground after tripping over a loose stone on the pathway.

"Hey are you alright?"

Gabriella looked up into the face of James Danton, one of the members of the basket ball team and Troy's rival for the sports scholarship to a Princeton college.

She hastily rubbed at her damp eyes, smudging her mascara down her cheeks unknowingly, and attempted a smile.

"Yeah fine thanks" she muttered. James gave her a quizzical look and shook his head.

"Nah, I don't think so." He disagreed, "I think you need a milkshake and a good listener right now" He decided and Gabriella sniffed and nodded.

"A milkshake would be great thanks"

James grinned and held out his arm for her, and she slipped hers through his, allowing him to lead her to the nearest coffee shop.

Troy bounded round the corner of the theatre, just in time to witness Gabriella, his Gabriella, linking arms and leaving with James Danton. The guy troy hated most in the world; his rival for team leader, the sports scholarship and now, apparently, his girlfriends affections.

Okay, he thought to himself, Game on.


End file.
